"You never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them",
In these words Atticus explains Scout and Jem the way they should treat other people - those who are like them and those who are different from them; Black and white, criminals and their victims, haters and lovers.
In this game students are playing different characters from the novel "To Kill a Mockingbird": Scout, Jem, Aunt Alexandra, Calpurnia and Boo Radley. Each player is asked to "stand in the Other's shoes and walk around in them" in order to describe and explain his point of view, even if it is quite different from his own.
In the end of the game, the students will understand the complexity of Maycomb and the varied perspectives that comprise local society as well as human society in general.
Read the novel "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee
Jean-Louise Finch (Scout) is the narrator and protagonist of To Kill a Mockingbird. At the beginning of the novel, she is 6 years old (she already can read…) and by the end of it she is 9 years old. Scout is an unusual girl that does not behave according to regular social norms: she behaves like a boy and does not value acceptable manners. She has a most developed sense of conscience, she admires her father Atticus even when she choose to rebel against him.
Jem is a brave boy who seeks justice. He is in early adolescence. He admires his father, Atticus. Four years older than Scout, he remains her close companion and protector.
His encounters with injustice, racism and discrimination are traumatic for him. However, he remains optimistic and believes in human goodness.
Alexandra is the sister of Atticus. Unlike her brother, she is a woman who represents the conservative social norms of the south, which causes her to confront Atticus and Scout. In her opinion, the way Atticus educates his children is wrong and could causes them social ostracism.
Calpurnia is the African-American housekeeper and cook at the Finch residence. She in fact serves as a mother figure that helps raise Jem and Scout and teach them Atticus' values, even when she does not always agree with it.
Unlike most of her community she is an educated woman (teaches Scout to read and write).
Boo (Arthur) Radley, One of Finch's family neighbors, is a young boy that shuts itself at home after his father abused him. His isolation makes Jem and Scout see him as a monstrous ghost, scary and attractive at the same time. His kindness and gentleness reveals only at the end of the novel, when he rescues Gem from the hands of Bob Joel.